Cossington Meadows Osprey and Wood Sand Hooray!!

Yesterday evening was a good time to be down at Cossington Meadows, as at around 6.00pm I had an Osprey flying over Plover meadow being mobbed by a number of birds. The Osprey slowly drifted south towards Cossington South/Wanlip North GPs, and was noted to briefly hover over the pits trying to catch a fish! (This sighting was a local patch tick for yours truly).Following this sighting, ten minutes later while scanning the Plover meadow, I found a summer-plumaged Wood Sandpiper feeding at the muddy edges.
Wood Sand's is one of my favourite waders, so to find one in summer plumage on your local patch is an added bonus.
Other sightings on Plover meadow included the usual waders, and up to five recently hatched Lapwing chicks which was good to see.
In conclusion, this was probably the best half an hour of birding down Cossington Meadows I've had for a couple years, and continues the Soar Valley excellent run of form of turning up unusual birds!

Anything for the bank holiday weekend sir?...Black Terns and a Temminck's Stint. 4th May 2008.

Arriving at Eyebrook Res at around 7.00am in the morning, I scanned the reservoir to note that three Greenshanks, a single Oystercatcher and a flock of twelve( yes twelve!) Common Sandpipers had arrived overnight.
During the next hour, an Arctic Tern and Six Common Terns went through, but nothing much else of note, so I decided to move on Rutland Water for my annual six months visit.

Starting at the Lyndon reserve, I quickly found a couple of Nightingales singing along the track at Gibbet Gorse. Although Nightingales are not the most prettiest bird, there probably have the best song around for any passerine.
Walking slowly back to my car, I scanned the reservoir from the Lyndon reserve, and noticed at least thirty Black Terns flying into Manton Bay, RESULT!!
Watching the Terns hawking over the water for a few minutes, I then let the visitor centre and Birdnet pager services know of the presence of the Black Terns, and then I moved on to towards the Egleton reserve.
As usual there wasn't much to report from the centre except for a Green Sandpiper on lagoon 1, and another flock of 25+ Black Terns communting between lagoon 1 and south arm 3.
Driving round to the north arm, I met up with Ben Croxtall and Matthew Berriman, and asked if there was much about, to which there stated it was pretty quiet, except for the regular Yellow legged Gull, and a single Black Tern over the reservoir and a few Ringed Plovers feeding along the shoreline.
Just before I left Rutland Water we watched a Hobby flew over the north arm towards the lagoons.
After my visit to the east of the county, I returned to my local patch, the Soar Valley.

My first stop was Wanlip Meadows, parking my car at the nearby Watermead CP North, I slowly walked towards Plover Hide, when I met another birder coming out of the hide, and he said to me that he had just seen a Temminck's Stint on the scrape!
Viewing from the hide, I could clearly see the Temminck's Stint was on the far side of the scrape slowly feeding on the shoreline. I congratulated the birder on finding the Stint, and then phoned the news out about the Stint.
Over the last five years Wanlip Meadows has had a very good track record for attracting Temminck's Stints and this was the fifth Temminck's I had seen on the meadows in the last four years!
Waiting for the local birders to arrive, the Temminck's flew off to the small flash in the next field, which could not be seen from the Plover hide, so I let out the news that the Stint had moved and best viewed from the public footpath at the back of Wanlip Lane.
Meeting up with the Groby crew (Allen, Andy and Paul), after driving round to the lane we watched the Stint for the next half and hour, as it feed on the edge of the flash.
The Stint then flew back to the main scrape and I thought it was a good time to make my way home.
So in conclusion an excellent morning birding and the Soar Valley comes up trumps again for an unusual sighting.

Well done the PONTY!

Just a quick note to say well done to Pontypridd RFC for winning there semi-final game against Aberavon in the Konica Minolta cup.

Ponty beat Aberavon 33-10, with tries scored from Gavin Dacey,Gareth McCarthy,Kristian Baller and Chris Clayton.

Next up for Ponty is Neath RFC in the final on May 17th, and going by current form, Ponty will be the underdogs for this match,but hopefully as it's the year of underdog, Ponty can produce a shock result?

Anything for the weekend Sir? Yorkshire for a King Eider and a Yankee Wigeon, 27th April 2008.

aren't rares and seabirds brill ant!!


Myself and John, left Leicester at around 6.30am to get to Rother Valley CP, near Sheffield just after 7.30 am to look for a Yankee Wigeon.

John then phoned Mark Reeder (one of the Drunkbirders crew!), who was still in bed were the best place to see the American Wigeon he had found a couple of days previously. He told John that the best place was the main lake or the far bank, were the bird had been seen the previous day.
As we checked out the main lake, there was no sign of the Wigeon, so we walked down the track to the far bank, but again there was no sign of the bird in the surrounding area.
Walking slowly back up the track I saw a Wigeon species flying and landing on to the main lake. It was the American Wigeon!

Over the next hour, initially the wigeon wasn't playing ball, but after twenty minutes, the Wigeon flew over to the near bank, and give excellent views, to which John got some decent shots of the bird.
By this time, the main target of day, a male King Eider at Flamborough Head had been re found, so we made tracks to Bridlington.

Calling into McDonald's at Goole for some breakfast, we soon finished our Hash Browns, Bacon Rolls and Coffee and drove on to Flamborough for the Eider.(yes I know I'm giving money to the capitalist corporation, but there do do a great breakfast!)
Arriving at South Landing at Flamborough Head, we were told by a couple of birders, that the King Eider had been relocated showing off the Lighthouse, so we drove to the Lighthouse, only to be told that the Eider was now showing from North Landing!
Driving over to North Landing, we finally soon picked up the Eider distantly off the headland.
Although it was quite misty over the sea, we did take a few distant record digiscope shots of this splendid duck.
Other sightings in this area included good numbers of Puffins, Razorbills,Guillemots and the usual seabirds associated with Flamborough Head.
Moving on to Bempton Cliffs RSPB, as usual the lovely smell of guano greeted us as we walked down to the cliffs.
Like at Flamborough, good numbers of seabirds were showing on the cliffs, although there was more Puffins at Flamborough head.
Over the next hour we took a number of photos of the seabirds.

From Bempton, our final destination of day was Swine Moor, near Beverley to look for a Lesser Yellowlegs which had been present for a few days.
Parking by the roadside opposite the flooded fields, we soon had seen a Wood Sandpiper, a couple of Garganeys, and a bird which looked very much like a Lesser Yellowlegs (it was reported later as a Greenshank via the pager services!?).
Other sightings in the area, included two nice looking White Wagtails, a single Yellow Wagtail and a Greenshank.
Happy with a good day's birding and a number of year ticks we finally called it a day, and drove back home to Leicester.

Thanks to John for his photo of the Yankee Wigeon in this post.

Soar Valley Tick Bittern hooray! 20th April 2008.

A very wet dawn chorus!

Another early morning start for myself and John, as we guided the LRWT Leicester group around Prior's Coppice LRWT for the dawn chorus walk. Although it rained for most of the walk, good numbers of common species were heard and seen, with highlights included a calling Tawny Owl, at least four Marsh Tits, and singing Grasshopper and Garden Warbler. The last two were year ticks to boot.
After finishing the walk we move on to Robin-a-Tiptoe Hill, near Tilton, were John promptly found a male Ring Ouzel distantly feeding round the top of the hill.
The Ring Ouzel was a nice find, but there nothing much else to report, so myself and John went back to Leicester for some breakfast at a local McDonald's ( This is the only meal I will eat at McDonald's!), and then dropping off John at his home.
After a short power nap at home, I was woken by phonecall from Jez Robson, who had just seen the Bittern again down at Cossington Meadows.
As you can imagine I drove very quickly to Cossington Meadows.
Joining Andy Mackay, Jez and John down at Cossington, the Bittern showed again, as it flew around Tern Pool and then landed in the nearby reedbed. When the bird was first seen it was apparently walking down the track next to the tern pool!
Other sightings around the meadows included newly arrived Whitethroats, Reed Warblers and five Yelllow Wagtails on the plover meadow.
As it seem to be a day when lots of stuff were being recorded, I moved on to Groby Pool, as a group of Little Gulls and a Black Tern had been found by Brian Moore.
As I got out of my car, John let us know that the birds had flown off, but there was some stuff at Thornton Res as well, so jumping back in to my car, I followed John to Thornton.
Arriving at Thornton Res we scanned the water to see that four Little Gulls feeding over the surface, which we accompanied by twelve Common Terns and a single Arctic Tern.
In the nearby fields we also watched a corking male Yellow Wagtail feeding around the cattle and horses, when suddenley the hirundines all went berserk,chatting and gaining height very quickly. At this point I picked up a Hobby flying over the reservoir, and shouted to John of it's presence. We watched it try and catch a couple of Swallows and Martins but this time to no avail.
As time was pressing, what better way to finish the day, with a number of year ticks and a Soar Valley tick to boot!

The Brecks,Stone Curlews, Cranes and Ouzels. 19th April 2008

Following an early start from Leicester at around 5.00am, John, myself and the Wearside Whippet (aka: Brian), drove over to the "Brecks" on the Suffolk/Norfolk border for a day trip around Norfolk.

Our first port of call was Weeting Heath NWT to look for Stone Curlew and WoodLark. Arriving first at the West hide, we soon located two pairs of Stone Curlews in front of the hide, and as you can imagine we took quite a few photos of the Curlews.

Moving on to the East hide, like the Stone Curlews we soon located a singing Woodlark quite close to the hide. Again the group took a few photos of the performing Woodlark.

The other notable sighting we had on the reserve was of an adult Stoat giving grief to the local Lapwings and the large population of rabbits.

From Weeting Heath, we then went to Lakenheath RSPB reserve. The last time I went to this reserve about five years ago, it had no facilities, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a new visitor centre and a build up of new habitats like the new large reedbed and the surrounding washland.

Sightings we saw on the reserve included good numbers of Bearded Tits and five Marsh Harriers over the large reed bed, newly arrived spring migrants in the form of Sedge Warblers, Whitethroat and a single Reed warbler. However the best sighting we had on the reserve was of an adult Common Crane flying briefly over the reed bed. Last year a pair of Common Cranes breed at this site, which was the first time in Britian for over two hundred years,so hopefully it will occur again this year?

Moving on from "The Brecks" we drove over to the North Norfolk coast, to see if we could find some more spring migrants. First stop was Burnham Overy Staithe to look for a long staying Rough-legged Buzzard, but after scanning the marshes for a good half an hour, there was no sign of the Buzzard.

Following a pager message we then moved to Thornham, to look for the reported Ring Ouzels. Parking on the road between Thornham and Choseley, we soon located at least three Ring Ouzels sitting on a nearby hedge in the surrounding farmland.

The final destination of the day was Snettisham country park, were a pair of Garganey had been reported earlier in the day.

Checking out the marshes, notable sightings included a couple of Avocets, good numbers of Pink-footed Geese,a pair of Marsh Harriers quartering the marshes, and the usual waders normally encountered at Snettisham. However there was no sign of the Garganeys!

Returning to the car the final sighting of the day was of a Lesser Whitethroat singing in a nearby bush next to the car park.

Thanks to John for supplying his photo of the Common Crane at Lakenheath.

Internet back on line Hooray!!!

Since Thursday last week my internet has been down. I have made a number of phonecalls to India (site for BT Homehub technical support?), and it looks like the problem is now fixed! Hooray!!
Thanks is due the technical staff and the engineer who came round this morning.